PET ARTICLES BLOG

If your household has a new puppy, I am sure that you have been the victim of his sharp little teeth. Obvious targets are your hands and feet, any shoes laying around, and basically everything else, too.I have listed a few good ideas for helping you deal with your puppy's biting and chewing stage.

• Be sure to get some chew toys for your new puppy. Since your puppy is teething and definitely needs to bite something, these toys are great alternatives to your skin.  When your puppy begins to play rough and starts biting your hands you should stop your puppy from biting you by holding his mouth closed with your hand. You should  keep his mouth closed until he becomes submissive and accepts your hand over his mouth without struggling. He may squirm around because he won't like his mouth being held shut-so soothe him with a calm voice and hold him still with your other hand. Firmly tell him “no biting”- but without raising your voice. You want to use the calm but firm voice so he doesn't become nervous and continue resisting longer. The calmer he stays, the quicker he’ll become submissive. Once he has become submissive and stopped struggling, it is time to remove your hand from his mouth, and offer him his chew toy as a wonderful substitute to human flesh.  Give him praise as soon as he starts to chew on the toy.Because you are positively reinforcing chewing on the toy instead of you-consistently-the puppy will learn that the toy is the better alternative.Be patient with the training (it won't change overnight. This type of negative reinforcement will hurt you progress with training your puppy by undermining his trust and confidence in you.For the best results, make sure the whole family knows to only use the positive reinforcement techniques. If some people are yelling or hitting the puppy when he play bites, this will undermine your own approach and cause the puppy to be confused.

• A good way to prevent household damage when you can't supervise your puppy's activities directly, is to keep him in his crate. By not either watching or confining your puppy to his crate, he most likely will be found chewing various items around the house. Always be sure to have some chew toys inside his crate for him to bite on while there.

• Common sense alone tells you some easy ways to stop the pup from chewing easy to get at goodies. For instance, it is a simple and easy idea to keep all your shoes behind a closed door.

• Use another tip from Mama dog to stop your puppy from biting by letting your puppy know that his biting is hurting you. You can imitate her, by yelping with a very high pitched voice to let the puppy know he is biting too hard. You might feel sort of silly, but this is one way Mama Dog  gets a puppy's attention and stops the puppy from biting her.

• I have found that when he is really biting hard, that combining the hand over the mouth with a snarl and staring into his eyes. sends a strong enough message that he will stop. This is one of the ways Mama dogs send a very clear message to the pup.

• You might not want to get fur in your mouth like a Mama dog does to make your point, but you can certainly grab the scruff of his neck with your hand until he is submissive again to let him know that you are the boss. Stick with the correction until the puppy is totally submissive-that is how you  will really know he’s received the message about listening to the boss-by being submissive and relaxed.

• Playing rough games with him, such as wrestling and tug of war only encourage him to bite, so avoid the rough play. I always used to do both those rough games with my puppies, and consequently always used to have bloody hands and wrists and forearms. I didn't realize at the time the rough playing was not a good idea because it could increase his aggression level.

Try out these tips to stop your puppy from biting you and your household. For more great tips and advice on how to train your puppy or doggy please visit www.BehaveDoggy.com.

To read my review of the best of the Internet's dog obedience training programs, please click here.

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